Sunrise: Opening A New Chapter
by Svendances
Summary: One shot. Complete. Babe. Ranger makes a decision about his life and let's Stephanie know in a less than orthodox way. Rating for a wee bit of smut like content toward the end. It's just something my sleepless mind came up with at 4am, so humour me and have a read.


**_So apparently, this is what my brain comes up with at four in the morning after staring at the dark ceiling above my bed all night... I was having trouble sleeping obviously, and finally decided to just let my mind run away with whatever it wanted. I got about eight hundred words in before promptly falling asleep (and slamming my face with my iPad) so I decided to finish it off this morning when I woke up and, well, what the heck, I away as well posit it._**

She stood on the balcony, her curly brown locks whipping in her face mercilessly as she stared out at the sea. Though it was warm at street level, bordering on sweltering in direct sunlight, up here on the fifth floor of the luxury holiday apartment building the wind battered her body so much that she was forced to slide into the lone, thin cardigan she had brought with her. Truth be told she was lucky she had even that, given how hastily she had shoved clothes into her duffle bag.

Leaning her hip against the rail as she continued to gaze out at the crashing waves she mulled over the events of the day. It had been an extraordinarily long one, starting well before the sun was up and ending long after midnight as she now took in the dark waves cresting with their white sea foam, but she would definitely never forget it.

_Ranger had arrived in her bedroom surrounded by his usual air of mist and mystery, hauling her from her mess of cotton sheets and shoving her in the direction of the shower with little more than a grunted, "Need your help, Babe." Needless to say, Stephanie had envisioned the help Ranger required involving them both naked in the shower, but when he turned the spray on and left her there she had to work hard to wipe the thoughts from her mind._

_Once showered and dressed, she'd met the man of mystery in her kitchen where he placed a coffee mug in one hand, an envelope in the other and told her she had ninety minutes. With that, he was once again out of the apartment, leaving Stephanie to wonder if perhaps she had been sleep walking mid dream and just woke up. That would be a suitable explanation, she supposed, if she weren't still holding the envelope he'd given her. She set the mug down on the kitchen table for a moment and ripped off one end of the envelope, tipping the contents into her hand._

_Two rings._

_A key fob._

_And a name: Grace Marcelo_

_Damned if she knew what that all meant, especially given her abrupt awakening this morning, so, obviously, she'd called Ranger._

_"Pack, Babe," he instructed, forgoing all semblances of a greeting when he picked up. "Ninety minutes." And with that, he promptly disconnected the call once more, leaving Stephanie just as confused as before, but she followed his instructions, pulling out her duffle bag and stuffing shorts, t-shirts, dresses, skirts, underwear and shoes inside before nabbing her emergency cosmetics/toiletries kit from the bathroom cupboard and cramming that inside too. She had no idea what was in store for in one hour, so, surveying the rumpled contents of her bag, she quickly grabbed two Rangeman uniforms and her Doc Martins and forced those in as well._

_Prepared for anything, right?_

_Not quite._

_As she made her way to the cookie jar on her kitchen counter in order to retrieve her faithful bag weight - otherwise known as a gun - there was a knock on the door. She glanced at the time on the microwave, noting that a little over half an hour had passed since Ranger had whirl winded through her apartment._

_Not enough time._

_Peering through the peep hole, she noted a blonde woman with large breasts that seemed disproportionate to her petite frame. She wore stylish spectacles, and was impeccably dressed, especially since it was not yet even four thirty am._

_"Can I help you?" Stephanie asked cautiously, jerking the stiff door open with a loud squeak and wondering anew how Ranger could possibly sneak silently into her apartment._

_"Grace Marcelo, ma'am," she greeted, pushing her hand through the gap in the door allowed by the security chain. "I'm here to get you ready."_

_"For what?" Steph asked suspiciously, casting a look over her shoulder to the the kitchen table where the rings, fob and name sat like pieces of an incomplete puzzle. "Ranger hired you?"_

_"Yes, ma'am," the woman, Grace, replied efficiently. "If you could grab your luggage, we really should have been on the road two minutes ago."_

_"On the road where?" she stalled, not yet unlatching the chain. "What's going on?"_

_"You'll find out soon enough," Grace assured her, taking a step back, allowing Stephanie to acknowledge, for the first time, that the hall behind the woman was occupied by a sleepy looking Lester._

_"Let's get this show on the road," Lester prompted, stifling a yawn. "I'm under strict orders to deliver you on time."_

_"I was told I had ninety minutes," Stephanie explained, finally opening the door fully. "It's only been-"_

_"We still need to get there, ma'am," Grace interrupted, causing a shudder to run down Stephanie's spine. She hated being called ma'am, but neither the woman nor Lester was in any mood for arguments, it seemed. As. Lester swept into her apartment, snatching up the loaded duffle bag and the contents of the envelope from the kitchen table, Grace took her arm and urged her toward the - gag - stairs. Not time to protest, though, because nearly the very next moment she was in the limo that had been waiting in the parking lot._

_Limo?_

_Things were just getting curiouser and curiouser, but no matter how many different approaches she took, neither Grace nor Lester were forth coming with any details on what was happening. Lester simply sat on one end of the long leather couch, legs stretched out before him, sipping on a glass of orange juice. Meanwhile, Grace had opened a large box and was beginning to fiddle about... With Stephanie's hair..._

_No amount of brushing the woman away could get her to stop, though, so she just had to accept it. When the woman was finished securing her curls into an elegant down-do, she then pulled out a bottle that looked suspiciously like liquid foundation. That was the last straw._

_"Lester, for God's sake, tell me what on earth is going on!" She demanded, holding her hands in front of her face to prevent the other woman from attacking her with make up. "Is this some kind of distraction? Shouldn't I be reading a file or something?"_

_Lester had met her eyes, an unreadable expression in his own. "You'd do anything for Ranger, am I right?"_

_"All he has to do is ask," she agreed immediately, nodding her head vigorously. "But he hasn't asked."_

_"Give it time," he assured her, patting my knee. "The ninety minutes aren't up yet."_

_With a frustrated groan, she dropped her hands and allowed the woman to work on her face, keeping an eye on her reflection in any shiny surface she could see. She didn't want eyeliner halfway down her cheek all because this woman couldn't wait until the car had stopped moving before putting make up on her._

_Stephanie had just decided that there were worse things in the world than being whisked away in a limousine where a competent young woman proceeded to pamper you and make you look the best you ever had when her phone began to ring in her pocket. She looked from her still wet nails to the offending bulge and then to Lester. "Little help?" She requested._

_"Babe, I love you," came Ranger's voice down the line when Lester pressed the button for speaker phone._

_"I, uh, love you too?" Stephanie replied, giving the phone an incredulous look. "What is this all about? What do you need my help with? And why is this woman tarting me up?"_

_To her surprise, a soft chuckle carried to her ears straight from Ranger's mouth. "She not tarting you up, Babe," he said gently. "She's enhancing your natural beauty."_

_Stephanie paused, her reply delayed by the thrill of butterflies gliding through her stomach. Love? Beauty? Ranger? She had to be dreaming. "But why?" she finally managed to ask, though it sounded to her ears like she was whining._

_Rather than answer her question, Ranger decided to throw her a curve ball by asking another in return. "What was in the envelope?"_

_Say what? Shouldn't he know what was in there? Stephanie had assumed he was the one who'd put the items in there. "A key fob, the name of the lady and two rings," she listed in a confused tone. "I thought you were the one who-"_

_Her words were cut off when Ranger spoke. "What do the rings look like?" he asked._

_"Ranger," Stephanie sighed. "I'm sick of jumping through hoops. Can't you just tell me what's going on?"_

_"Fifteen minutes," he said simply before hanging up on her once more._  
_Stephanie glared at Lester, silently accusing him of god only knew what, but she felt that he definitely knew more than he was telling. They all were. And if they weren't careful she was going to have had enough of it and work out how to army roll out of a moving vehicle. This was ridiculous. One does not simply wake a girl up in the middle of the night and send her on a crazy vision quest. It's just not done. Her eyes narrowed at Lester some more and he must have guessed the direction of her thoughts, because he abruptly held out his hand, palm up, displaying the rings amongst his many callouses._

_"Maybe you should take a closer look at the rings," he suggested almost innocently._

_"Maybe you should stop the car and let me out," Stephanie countered, snatching up the items._

_"Hal's not gonna do that," Lester assured her. "He's under strict instructions not to stop until we get to the resort."_

_"Resort?" she asked._

_"That's what the key fob is for," Lester pointed out. "Look at your rings," he then prompted. "What's the first thing that comes to mind when you see them?"_

_Stephanie plucked the rings from his still extended hand and turned them over and over in her fingers, holding them together, holding them apart. She examined the sapphire and diamond setting of one, the smooth silvery band of the other. "They look like an engagement and wedding ring," she said abruptly, her head snapping up to meet Lester's gaze. "Who's getting married?"_

_The dividing window between where they sat and where Hal was behind the wheel slowly whirred down at that moment. "Ten minutes," Hal announced. "Time to start the video."_

_And a flat screen television lowered from the ceiling._

_Stephanie could only gape. She'd thought that kind of thing was only capable in movies where nothing was real so it didn't have to be hooked up and functioning. This one obviously was, though, since it immediately came to life, showing a larger than life image of Ranger's head and torso._

_"Babe," he said, smiling softly at the camera. "I know this is probably not the way you envisioned this happening. For a start you probably expected days... Weeks... Even months of advance warning. But I got this feeling when I dropped you off after the distraction yesterday and it couldn't be tamped down. I had to act on it." He paused a moment looking down at his hands. If Stephanie didn't know any better she'd say he was nervous. But of course, this was Ranger, he was incapable of such emotions, right? "I also know that you hate being reeled out of bed in the middle of the night," he continued then with an almost sheepish grin, " but I had to do it. Babe, there's and experience I want to share with you, but its a pretty big commitment. I've had these urges lately that I don't feel right simply acting on without you knowing exactly why. So this evening I decided I would show you just how much I want to make things right between us. The only way I know how."_

_"When did he get so wordy?" Stephanie asked when Ranger paused once more on the screen._

_Both Hal and Lester shushed her._

_"This is the best part," Hal informed her._

_Stephanie rolled her eyes before returning her attention to the screen and barely stifled a gasp._

_"Stephanie Michelle Plum," Ranger began, looking up at the camera from his position on one knee, holding out the very same sapphire ring she held in her hand. "I am ready for a happily ever after and I can't think of anyone I want to share it with more than you. Would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"_

_"Holy crap!" Stephanie exclaimed looking from the screen to the ring to Lester and back again. "Is he for real?"_

_Lester nodded solemnly. "I believe so, Beautiful."_

_Stephanie stared at the paused screen for a few moments, trying not to ruin her make up by allowing the tears she felt burning behind her eyes to spill over. "Dial him up," she instructed the man. "I need to tell him a thousand yeses."_

_Rather than pick up the phone Lester had set beside him on the cushioned bench, he hit a button on a panel on the wall and the tape started rolling again. Ranger was back to his head and shoulders position, a serious expression on his face. "I hope you said yes, Babe," he said. "I want to spend my life with you. And I want it to start as soon as possible. When you arrive at the resort, Grace will help you change and lead you down to the beach. I'll be waiting."_

_And he had been. Along with twenty of their closest friends and family. And a Justice of Peace. As Stephanie stepped nervously off the patio area and onto the beach, the assembly caught sight of her in her elegant dress of a blue so pale it could have been mistaken for white and cheered. A few even shedding happy tears. She made her way through the crowd accepting congratulations and hugs from them all until she came to where Ranger stood in a black suit, white shirt and palest of pale blue ties._

_For some reason, her eyes were drawn to his feet, which were bare just like hers, his toes wiggling in the sand under her gaze. A startled giggle escaped her throat when he caught her left hand in his, bringing it up to his mouth where he proceeded to kiss her fingers._

_"Two minutes," Tank announced gazing out at the lightening horizon._

_"Are you ready, Babe?" Ranger whispered, flickering his eyes to the waiting JP. "We can wait if you need some time."_

_In reply, Stephanie squeezed his hand. "I'm ready for anything if you're with me," she assured him._

_"Always."_

"Babe, why are you dressed?" Ranger asked now, stepping through the sliding glass doors and onto the balcony. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his his lips to her neck.

Stephanie turned around in his grasp, noting that he was still naked. "It's chilly out here," she pointed out.

Ranger grinned. "I figured we could warm each other up."

"On the balcony?"

"No one will see," he said. "It's dark."

She shook her head, bringing her hands up to twine into the hair that hung free around his shoulders. "What made you decide it was time?" Stephanie asked, locking eyes with him to let him know it was serious time.

"The way you look in the moonlight. The way you sigh when you think I'm with holding information. The way your eyebrows draw together when you're thinking."

"No," she interrupted. "Why now?"

"Because I realised how much I truly despise other men touching you like you're a piece of meat. And I had to stake my claim on you before I lost my nerve."

"Lost your nerve?" She repeated, incredulous. It was hard to imagine Ranger doing such a thing.

"Tank will tell you about all the times I'd planned on asking you to marry but ended up biting my tongue as something or other came up and I decided it wasn't the right time," he explained, brushing a curl from her face as the wind blew it over. "But for now, I think my wife needs some help warming up."

Slowly, he drew the two halves of Stephanie's cardigan apart, revealing her pale, supple flesh to the moonlight. His gaze raked across her puckering nipples hungrily before she managed to put her hands on his chest.

"Wait," she said. "I have more questions."

"I thought I answered them all at the reception," he groaned, laying his forehead on her shoulder. The champagne breakfast had been long and, for his part at least, uniquely frustrating. Not only did he have to endure the hours of festivities with their family and friends, waiting for the moment he could take his new wife upstairs and consummate the brains out of her, but he had had to answer her unending questions. Some were simple: where are we going to live? How did you convince my mother to climb on the band wagon? Others were more complicated: why so fast? Why now? Were you afraid I'd change my mind if you allowed too much time for consideration? He thought he'd covered every base in the universe in between congratulations and speeches.

Apparently he'd been wrong.

"Just one more," Stephanie requested. "And then I promise you can ravish me unhindered for the rest of the night."

"As you wish," Ranger agreed, lifting his head once more to gaze into her contemplative face.

"Why sunrise? Most people choose twilight or sunset for that kind of atmosphere. Was it just because you enjoy dragging me out of bed in the middle of the night?"

"Sunrise makes a better metaphor for this next step in our relationship," Ranger explained quickly, and before she could add any follow up questions, he kissed her. Hard. His tongue delving between her lips to mingle with her own, drawing out a satisfied moan from her throat. "This is just the beginning of our story," he assured her long moments later when he drew back for a much needed breath. "I wanted to open our new chapter as the sun brought on the new day."

And clearly, they lived happily ever after.

The End


End file.
